


A Cry In The Night

by Han502653



Series: A Hunter Family [1]
Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: Gen, How Shoot and Morel Met, Kidfic, Morel meanwhile is trying really hard to pretend he's not a giant soft-hearted doofus, Mostly non descriptive of loss of arm, Shoot really needs a hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-15
Updated: 2018-06-15
Packaged: 2019-05-23 18:20:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14939448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Han502653/pseuds/Han502653
Summary: Morel had been between missions, treating himself to a few drinks: simple, easy, normal , even routine when a scream in the night changes everything.Shoot had just been trying to protect the only creature that showed him positivity—he didn’t expect to come out alive, let alone be saved and offered a home.





	A Cry In The Night

**Author's Note:**

> So this is the start of a bunch of stories I'm going to be posting about Morel, Shoot, Knuckle, and Knov because I have to fall in love with a group of side characters in every fandom I join it seems. Some of them will be kid fics like this one, some will take place during or even after the Chimera Ant Arc and everything in between. There will be a lot of headcanons so be warned.
> 
> Also be warned i've only watched the anime once and my brother is the one who owns it so yeah... I try my best but character voices at first might be a bit off.
> 
> I hope everyone enjoys!

It had been a nice enough night. A little chilly but he had enough alcohol in his system that it didn’t bother him. His mission was over, the money was in his account, and so he’d gone out, found a small pub in a quieter, if rundown part of town and celebrated in his own way.

The mission hadn’t been that exciting, nor the pub nice enough to brag to Knov about, but he was in a good enough mood as he walked back to his hotel. The streets were dark, most of the lights burnt out, and the buildings rundown so he wasn’t that surprised or disturbed to hear laughing from down one ally.

The child’s scream that followed was an entirely different story.

 

It was twelve against one, or what at best counted as one, a young boy against a wall, his left arm shredded, the other tangled into the fur of an old three-legged mutt next to him, on his side and not moving much.

The rest grinning—drunk—sadists.

“That’s what you get for messing with our fun,” the leader, holding a bloodied hunting knife, snickered. “Who did you think you were? Some kind of hero, a _Hunter_?”

His toadies laughed. The boy shuddered, still alive then, and tried to shrink even further into his shoulders.

Morel scowled from his place on top of a building as he brought his pipe to his lips. He could feel the slightest Nen signature from in the group—someone poor at Zetsu, or perhaps someone who had only barely, and unknowingly, awakened it. Either way he didn’t want to risk it—not with the kid there. Not if there was a chance they were more powerful then they looked and could take him hostage if he was stupid.

“It’s gettin’ kinda foggy,” one of the toadies on the outside of the circle muttered.

The one next to his smacked him quiet. “Whatcha going to do with him boss?”

The boss hummed as he crouched down, poking the boys chin with his knife. He flinched. “What am I going to do—well, what I was going to do, finish off this useless mutt.”

He stood but Morel blinked—the Nen signature he’d thought he noticed… it was coming from the _kid_.

And _growing_.

“Umm boss…” one of the toadies muttered uncomfortably. The kid’s death aura was too weak to do more than make them nervous, but it was growing, and proving as the perfect distraction. Morel stepped off of the roof and landed behind him, pulling him into the fog.

Meanwhile the boy made a sound of protest and shifted minutely towards the dog.

The boss ignored him, face twisting. The aura was only enough to piss him off. “What, you going to try and stop me?”

He lunged. Morel cursed and jumped to intersect only to pull back in the last second as a glowing, vaguely hand shaped form appeared and smacked the man to the side. The knife slammed into the brick behind the kid and flew from his hand. Morel twisted around and grabbed him from behind while he was confused.

“Ghost!” the two toadies he hadn’t gotten to screamed and ran off. The hand flickered and died. Morel squeezed his captive until he slumped unconscious and threw him to the side before crouching over the boy and dog.

The boy flinched.

“It’s alright, I’m here to help.” Morel tried to sooth while he pulled his belt off as he realized just how bad his arm was. The boy hissed as he tightened the belt into a tourniquet, but otherwise didn’t react as he then tied his tie and then shirt around what was left of his arm.

With nothing else he could do, Morel pulled out his cell.

 

Morel missed his flight out. He hadn’t meant to, not really. He’d done his job—the kids was in the care of medical, the bastards arrested, and he’d even gotten the dog to a vet and paid for the surgery he’d need. So really, he’d already done more than he needed to do. No point sticking around.

But, well, _someone_ had to tell the kid the dog lived, and _someone_ had to tell the kid what Nen was—anyone might target him if he walked around flaring like he would be and it could be dangerous to work out on your own—maybe he’d call up Bisky’s kid, Bing or something, to help there but until then one day late wouldn’t be a problem, he more than had the money for it.

Knov had laughed at him when he called to delay their night out.

Asshole.

Morel stalked through the halls of the hospital—with his license it had been easy to get access. To easy really considering he knew how easily a Hunter could be a bad egg, but that wasn’t his problem. The nurse had pointed him to the kid’s, Shoot apparently, room. As he walked down the hall two people left the room he was going for—one with familiar purple hair, the other with narrow features—probably the kid’s parents.

Morel tried to lengthen his stride and call out to them, but they quickly turned into a stairwell and were gone. Frowning Morel shrugged—it probably be easier to avoid them anyway—and continued on.

The kid was awake and sitting up against a bed of pillow—his one arm, or rather what was left of it, ended halfway down his bicep and was bandaged tightly. He was staring dully at his lap as a nurse fussed over him, fixing his blanket and checking his vitals. He didn’t seem to notice her, almost looking as if he was in shock—drugged Morel guessed.

The nurse looked up as his form shadowed the light from the hall. “Oh, I’m sorry, can I help you? Are you lost?” She looked… teary eyed?

“No, uh, I’m here to see the kid—Shoot right?” He offered the stuffed dog he’d impulsively bought at the gift store when he passed by. This nurse seemed far less convinced at leaving a child with a strange man than the other, so he added. “I’m the one that found him last night. I wanted to see if he was okay.”

She seemed a little appeased by that, but only just. She leaned over the boy, touching his shoulder lightly. “Do you want to talk to him?” she asked soothingly.

It took a long moment but eventually the boy shrugged slightly.

“Alright, I’ll be back in a few minutes.” She gave Morel a long look, but left them alone. Morel scratched the back of his head and looked at the kid, who was still staring dumbly at his lap, before awkwardly taking a seat in the chair next to the bed.

“So… how are you feeling?” He asked before wincing. The boy didn’t respond. “Right… stupid question.”

Awkward silence take two.

“So, um, I got you this?” He handed the stuffed toy to the boy belatedly realizing he was offering it to the wrong arm. “Ah…right.” He placed it at his side. The boy still didn’t react.

Awkward silence take three.

“Right, look I figured you’d want to know that the dog is fine.”

That got a reaction. The boy jolted a bit and turned to him wide eyed.

“Uh…” Morel shifted under his wide-eyed attention. “Yeah, I got him to a vet, got a call this morning saying he made it through surgery and should make a full recovery. They are also getting his fleas and ringworm dealt with… ah, was he _your_ dog?”

“No,” the boy finally whispered. “He just… Thank you.”

Morel blinked, “Huh?”

“You had to pay for it didn’t you,” he barely muttered looking back at his lap. “None of the shelters around here would have bothered otherwise. They would have put him down. And… I remember you. You put your shirt around my arm.”

“Ah, about that,” Morel leaned forward. “How much do you remember of last night?”

The boy winced and Morel suddenly felt like an asshole. Go make the child relive torture, what a great plan.

“They were harassing Dog.”

“Dog?”

The boy blushed. “He wasn’t _my_ dog so I never named him, but they were hurting him and I tried to stop them and they…” He paused. “Hurt me.”

“After that?”

The boy                picked at the blanket with his good hand.

“There was… talking, they were going to kill Dog… it was foggy,” his brows came together at the thought. Morel was impressed he’d notice that was odd despite everything.  It hadn’t been the right weather for normal fog, but even then people rarely noticed.

“After that?”

The boy was quiet for a long moment. “You saved me.”

Morel hummed, normally he’d think he just didn’t remember but that look on his face. “Before that?”

The boy said nothing.

“Kind of looked like a glowing hand.”

The boy’s head sprung back to stare at him “That was real?”

“Yes, and you did it. You saved your own life.” As much as Morel didn’t like to admit it, he’d read the situation wrong. He wouldn’t have gotten to the kid fast enough to stop the hit that would have killed him. “Do you know how?”

The boy shook his head. Morel leaned closer with a smile.

“It’s something called Nen—”

The nurse had come back, several times in fact, every ten minutes or so, but she didn’t interrupt, just peeked in. Morel explained Nen as simply as he could, he wasn’t really sure how old the kid even was, he was skinny but tall, and even some basic exercises for Ten and Zetsu that he could do while he waited for his arm to heal.

The boy had been asleep before an hour was up, but Morel figured he’d told him enough and could go. With the plan to send Bisky’s kid to him, he made sure the stuffed dog wouldn’t fall from the bed and left.

The nurse caught him outside.

“Thank you.”

Morel blinked bemusedly. “For what.”

“Just, for getting a reaction out of him,” she looked through the window on the door. Morel looked as well to the sleeping boy. “It’s horrible what’s happened to him.”

“Yeah, no kid deserves to lose an arm.”

“Yes, and then his parents…”

“Parents?”

The nurse paused, the look of somebody who’d said to much plain on her face, but she took a long look at Morel before sighing.

“His parents… well they—”

 

Shoot woke slowly, fuzzily, and with a vague feeling of pain. He glanced around wearily as the past forty eight hours filtered back into his brain. He sighed and closed his eyes, only to open them and realize a mountain of a man was sitting in the seat next to him.

Shoot blinked blearily, he’d thought that had been a dream. The man grinned back at him.

“Hey kid, you ever want to be a Hunter?”


End file.
